Ride 4 Kai

Ride4Kai was awesomely successful. Martin Ward, Kai’s father and important part of our BMX family will be withdrawing the funds. The money will be used by Martin to support Kai in all his rehabilitation going forward. 

Ride 4 Kai is to raise much needed funds for Kai Sakakibara and his road to recovery and discovery after a major crash at Bathurst during a UCI racing event in February 2020.  Kai is a BMX Olympic hopeful that has dominated the Australian Scene since being born and growing up on the Gold Coast. 

A challenge was set by Nerang BMX Club to Paul Gale of the Gold Coast Radio Station 102.9 Hot Tomato’s breakfast show.  Galey has accepted the challenge and will attempt to ride the Nerang BMX track for 24 hours straight starting at 8am on Thursday and finishing at 8am on Friday, 3 & 4 December 2020 to raise funds for Kai. 

Kai’s Story 

Kai Sakakibara and his sister Saya were born on the Gold Coast, grew up riding, and racing BMX.  Kai’s talents were displayed early winning several National Championships within Australia and Japan.  Kai and Saya are some of Australia’s best and brightest BMX stars and were in training for the Tokyo Olympics when tragedy struck. 

In February of 2020, Kai had an accident while competing at the Bathurst World Cup that sent shock waves through the whole BMX community. Kai’s crash was so severe; he was unconscious on site and needed to be intubated immediately to keep him breathing.  Kai was immediately air lifted to Canberra hospital in a critical condition. 

He spent 6 weeks in Canberra ICU, with countless machines and lines connected to him to keep him in a fully relaxed state. This was essential after his surgery to relieve the enormous pressure in his brain and prevent more damage to Kai. Initially Kai was in a medically induced coma however, even when the drugs were stopped Kai was still not moving. 

The process of Kai emerging from the coma was a stressful and intense experience on the family leaving them with constant uncertainty. Medical experts could not advise whether Kai was ever going to wake up, be able to breathe by himself, have the ability to speak, eat, drink, move on his own again. 

As Kai finally started showing signs of movement, he displayed micro milestones and continued with achievements. From a flicker of an eyelid to moving a finger, to breathing on his own to moving his arm.  After 6 weeks in Canberra, Kai was well enough to be transferred to Liverpool Brain Injury Unit. At this point, Kai was still considered to be in in a coma. He had lost over 20kg of his body weight, was weak and unable to speak. Communication was through Yes or No questions with Kai responding by pointing to the word.  It was apparent at this stage that his injury had severely impacted his right side of the body. Meaning that both his right limbs were immobile as well as his right side of the face.  Kai being in the rehabilitation unit is a big step and just a beginning of a long journey to recovery. 

From day one at the rehabilitation unit, Kai started to improve at an exponential rate. As the result of the pandemic (COVID), Kai’s parents both became out of work and Saya was unable to continue the required preparation for the Olympics. 

The family stayed strong supporting Kai through his ongoing therapies which include Physio, Occupational and Speech.  Kai has continued to reach big milestones including standing up and taking his first steps since the accident.  Kai’s is starting to regain his language, memory, and cognitive ability.  Kai continues ticking off goals daily. 
 

Around the 9-month mark of this journey Kai has been able to come home on the weekends and there is no doubt that Kai continues to better himself every day.  The right side of his body is still weak and needs work but simple walking and cycling on a stationary bike is a common activity for Kai now.  His speech and cognitive ability are still improving by the week with his cheeky side started to show making communicating with him less of a challenge. 

As Kai became stronger his schedule became a lot more intense. Initially, he was only doing a few hours a day and he was so tired he needed to rest at lunchtime for a couple of hours. Over time he began to put on weight, was able to do better with his exercises and 14 weeks after the crash he was finally able to stand up unassisted. 

Kai’s approach to rehabilitation has been the same as his approach to training, he simply wants to ensure everything within his control is done to the best of his ability. The therapists have been super impressed with Kai’s strength and determination and have said he: 

… shows 110% commitment to physio on a daily basis. His immense focus and countless hours in the gym are helping him smash his goals (Physiotherapy) 
… is working very hard to regain his independence in many of his day to day activities, His perseverance with his recovery is something to be admired (Occupational Therapy) 
… is extremely motivated in his approach to therapy, both within and outside of our sessions. His positive attitude and work ethic are very impressive (Speech Therapy) 
After a hard day’s therapy in typical Kai manner, he would turn around and say “I’m really not sure if I am doing enough to get better”……… 

The next major step is for Kai to move to the Transition Living Unit. This will be done when Kai has the ability to manage some everyday tasks, the therapists are confident that after 7 months in the Brain Injury Unit this isn’t far away. In the TLU, Kai must learn basic home living skills such as shopping, cooking, cleaning etc. with assistance of staff to get him ready to be independent and focus on his future. We don’t know what exactly that will look like but his determination to get back on the bike is a strong factor that drives him through his day-to-day rehabilitations. He misses being in the Gold Coast and training with his mates, knowing that it is his favourite place to be. His goal is to get back to the Gold Coast and back to training. 

Kai’s family continue to do whatever they can for Kai. There is no doubt this has been the most intense and traumatic thing they have ever had to manage; Kai’s accident has had a massive impact on their lives. Each tiny step Kai makes towards recovery is also a step to recovery for the entire family. 

The BMX Community on a global level has also been deeply shocked by Kai’s accident. Kai was very open about sharing his highs and lows as he went through the journey of being an athlete focused on representing his country at the Olympics. He made us feel that we were with him on his quest to be the best in the world and we still feel like we are with him now as his life now focusses on trying to do everyday things that most people can do easily. Kai loved being a role model coaching the kids and representing Australia with passion and pride. He is still a role model, tackling adversity head-on and showing that it is important to never give up. 

Kai made the post below on Jan 1 2020, at that time he was solely focused on the Olympics. The post is more relevant now than it ever was. 

“How far can I go? How far am I willing to go? How far will I go? 

A new opportunity to redefine who we are and who we want to be - but it’s up to us to take action. 

We have to take action. 

One day at a time, one moment at a time. Let’s go”